Liebherr Mining Equipment Newport News Co. will exhibit its new autonomous haulage solution this week in Cologne, Germany, at the Autonomous Industrial Vehicle Technology Symposium. Liebherr plans to begin field trials of a pre-series at a customer site in 2019.
“We will offer three options to support various customer approaches to autonomy. Some customers would like a single supplier to do everything in a turn-key approach. Others want multiple supply options and are prepared for a larger integration effort. In this way, Liebherr will deliver the most flexible and cost effective way to achieve an autonomous haulage solution.”- Bryant Ward, Executive Vice President Engineering and Development, Liebherr Mining Equipment Newport News Co.
With it, the firm plans to address the various challenges facing the mining industry today as there is an increased global demand for minerals and metals while available resources are becoming harder to access due to location and harsh environments. High labor costs, increasing labor shortages and volatile commodity prices have also added to the strain. Automation and robotics can provide a solution by establishing streamlined processes for extracting ore, while reducing the exposure of workers to health risks.Liebherr intends to provide an open architecture solution offering customers flexibility with respect to the level of OEM content and integration from Liebherr they want to compliment their’ existing investments in fleet management and telemetry. This approach will allow customers to use Liebherr products along with other OEM equipment and choose the most suitable suppliers for third party solutions. Liebherr's new autonomous ready-haul trucks will be compatible with ”Mobius,” an autonomous command and control platform by Autonomous Solutions, Inc. (ASI).